171–180 of 582 posts
If the city, county, etc. maintains a street as "public", then it's fair game. However, I know there are jerkarses in the world and would treat residential streets as their personal race track.
If people are getting agitated and honking and there's traffic jams, that puts residents in danger.
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I'm sure they do, somewhere that nobody actually driving on one of the streets in question will ever see it. > "But the plans were on display..." > "On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them." > "That's the display department." > "With a flashlight." > "Ah, well the lights had probably gone." > "So had the stairs." > "But look, you found the notice didn't you?" > "Yes," said Arthur, "yes I di…
Once Waze integrates that law into their dataset the problem is solved. No sign required. I suppose they can't crowdsource that information or people would lie. There must be a system for getting traffic information from municipalities to the road databases. Apple Maps told me there was no way to drive home a couple days ago, on examination the street in front of my house was marked as closed for the day, they were p…
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A law that says "no thru traffic"? The real question would be "what law prevents that from being written into law". To which the answer is probably nothing.
Even having such a law preventing certain laws does little. There's a well-known top-level law stating a particular right "shall not be infringed". Infringing laws abound nonetheless, with most judges disinclined to invalidate them.
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I'm sure they do, somewhere that nobody actually driving on one of the streets in question will ever see it. > "But the plans were on display..." > "On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them." > "That's the display department." > "With a flashlight." > "Ah, well the lights had probably gone." > "So had the stairs." > "But look, you found the notice didn't you?" > "Yes," said Arthur, "yes I di…
In my experience, they're usually posted fairly prominently (like, at the same height as other signs, next to the road, looking like a street sign) and people are just oblivious.
I'm a homeowner and an active Waze user. The street I live on is not "my" street. It's a public street that any licensed driver may use. I did have an issue with drivers coming around a blind curve too quickly to be safe, though, so I did what these homeowners ought to be doing and contacted my local government about getting my street assessed for a traffic calming project. The city created a three-way stop before th…
I hope what happened in my neighborhood doesn't happen in yours. One person vetoed a stop sign that would have made our street much, much safer due to the blind curve and how fast people take it. The one home owner that objected scuttled the entire thing. Very frustrating.
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The use of traffic tickets as supplemental revenue is a time-honored tradition with many real-world examples. Some places fund their entire police department this way. I don't know why you'd think it couldn't be greater than the cost, either. It takes, what, five minutes to write a ticket, which might average $100? That's $1,200/hour of revenue. No way the officer costs that much, even including benefits and equipmen…
To get to 12 tickets an hour, you need at least 12 offenders an hour which is probably the bottleneck the GP alluded to. That said, 5 minutes per ticket pretty much requires offenders to present themselves in a nice, orderly line. A more normal scenario where the officer has to cruise around, pull someone over, get out, talk to the person ("no no, I'm not passing through, my sick uncle lives over there"), write the t…
Officers get exactly that when they set up shop in a place where they know there are going to be plenty of violators. Highway 66 inside of the DC beltway is HOV during rush hour. The police will just sit at the end of the on ramp and write tickets for everyone trying to cheat HOV or with expired tags or inspection. Makes for a great haul, especially because HOV tickets are $125 for the first offense, $250 for the second, $500 for the third, and $1000 for the fourth.
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Oulu, Finland has eight months of winter, yet they have a bike mode share triple that of Portland. Snow is not a barrier if a city actually cares about cycling: https://wintercyclingblog.org/2014/10/17/oulu-finland-winter...
European cities are also extremely dense compared to American sprawl.
2. Wikipedia says Oulu's urban density is 2300/sq mi, which is really not very dense at all.
3. In fact, apparently the suburb in the article (Takoma Park) has a density of 8000/sq mi, so more than triple that of Oulu.
The City of Berkeley, CA, fixed this problem a long time ago, before Waze or even widespread GPS. Every few blocks they block side streets to all vehicles except bicycles. The effect is to be forced to take right or left turns that guide you back to the main through street. Streets parallel to the through streets that are now impassible to cars are marked as "bicycle boulevards" and provide safer routes for cyclists.…
The truth about the barriers in Berkeley: they increase the values of some homes at the expense of others. If you live on a street with barriers that restrict traffic, then your house is worth more than one on the "approved" through streets.
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Traffic calming hurts emergency service response. Ambulances have to slow down to a crawl thru this "calming." Buyer beware.
I mean, I don't think I've ever seen an ambulance stop for a stop sign. But even allowing that speed bumps will slow an ambulance down, it's not as though there would ever be 200 speed bumps delaying the ambulance by 10 minutes. If the ambulance arrives a few seconds too late, the ambulance was already several minutes too late to begin with.
The City of Berkeley, CA, fixed this problem a long time ago, before Waze or even widespread GPS. Every few blocks they block side streets to all vehicles except bicycles. The effect is to be forced to take right or left turns that guide you back to the main through street. Streets parallel to the through streets that are now impassible to cars are marked as "bicycle boulevards" and provide safer routes for cyclists.…
I still see lots of people who are willing to disregard these signs, though. For example on Channing at Roosevelt I see people cut through daily. https://www.google.com/maps/@37.8647438,-122.2756017,3a,75y,...